The friendly laughter brought their hearts closer.
An ambiguous atmosphere began to fill the air.
Pepper noticed at once, frowning with a sense of discomfort.
She had the personality of a strong career woman and was vehemently against developing feelings for her boss. Even though the world was rife with rumors about her and Tony, she had no desire to take advantage of the situation and climb into Tony's bed.
So, Pepper deliberately broke the atmosphere, pulling a small USB drive from her pocket and tossing it onto the table.
"This is the footage you asked me to collect from the bank vault, the roadside surveillance cameras, and the videos shot by onlookers on their phones."
Tony snapped back to reality, his expression also a bit awkward.
He had initially chosen Pepper to be his personal secretary not because of how beautiful she was, but because of her personality and exceptional abilities.
Over the years, Pepper's performance had satisfied him greatly, and their relationship had grown closer, evolving from a simple employer-employee dynamic to a friendship.
Because of this, the oblivious Tony had gradually overlooked the fact that Pepper was, in fact, a single woman.
It wasn't until that moment just now that he remembered, and a strange, heart-fluttering emotion arose within him.
Tony was a hopelessly straight guy, not good at expressing his feelings. He didn't press his advantage like a seasoned player but instead gave a cough to hide his awkwardness, plugged the USB drive into the computer, and switched to serious work mode.
"Jarvis, edit all the video clips in here into a single video."
"Of course, sir."
The material Pepper had collected was too voluminous and messy, filled with repetitive footage. To save time and increase efficiency, it had to be handed over to the artificial intelligence, Jarvis, for an initial edit.
Jarvis's core was a supercomputer; a task like editing footage was a piece of cake.
Just a dozen seconds later, Jarvis had finished editing all the videos.
The lab's television screen changed, and Tony and Pepper sat together, watching intently.
The bank's surveillance footage wasn't very interesting. A disguised Jason, wearing a stolen Iron Armor, had infiltrated the security team. After his accomplices created a diversion in other areas, he rushed into the vault, gave the middle finger to the camera, and then destroyed it.
The only real point of interest was that the one billion dollars in the vault had vanished into thin air, and no vehicles had entered the bank's underground parking garage since midnight.
Tony guessed that Jason might possess some kind of spatial superpower, allowing him to instantly steal tens of tons of cash.
The second part of the video was more interesting. Jason left the bank empty-handed and rushed into the street to chase after the female TV host who had provoked him, only to be sent flying several meters by an oncoming armored car.
"Stop!"
Tony's eyes glinted as he immediately had Jarvis pause the playback.
Based on Jason's subsequent actions, Tony guessed he had the superpower of energy absorption, and that he had stood there letting the armored car hit him simply to test the limits of his power.
This video clip revealed two things.
First: Jason had only recently acquired his superpowers and was not yet skilled in using them.
Second: Jason's superpower wasn't as invincible as it seemed. After being knocked down by the armored car, his arm had a slight abrasion.
An idea flashed in Tony's mind; he seemed to have found an angle to take Jason down.
He said excitedly, "Jarvis, analyze the kinetic energy of the armored car when it hit Jason."
The next second, Jarvis reported the answer directly: "The instantaneous energy was 11,945,305.225 joules, approximately equivalent to the explosive yield of 2.85 kg of TNT!"
Tony's eyes were filled with excitement and surprise.
"I fucking thought you were so badass, but it turns out your maximum instantaneous absorption is only equivalent to 285.46 kg TNT/second."
"With a limit like that, you still have the nerve to run your mouth in front of me."
Tony immediately scanned his company's products in his mind and found that many weapons exceeded this energy level, and a lot of them were man-portable.
No!
Can't do it!
Definitely can't use man-portable weapons.
Although he had discovered Jason's weakness, Tony didn't get hot-headed and rushed off for revenge. Instead, he calmly thought it through.
Besides the superpowers, the marksmanship of Jason and his men was another major headache.
If they used man-portable weapons, the soldier would very likely be shot dead by Jason the instant he fired.
With their god-like marksmanship, they could even shoot a soldier's arm to alter the weapon's trajectory, making a missile hit their own troops.
Once something like that happened, their own soldiers would suffer heavy casualties and a collapse in morale, and Jason's crew could then move in for the kill.
Therefore, to take out Jason and his crew, sending in a single soldier was never a viable option.
Tony immediately thought of a new solution—the Iron Armor!
Although the current online media and business rivals were trashing his Iron Armor as worthless, saying that anyone and everyone could take a shot at it.
But it was undeniable that the Iron Armor's potential was limitless.
This point was evident from how Jason had avoided it head-on, choosing instead to infiltrate the security team.
"The Iron Armor… the Iron Armor…" Tony kept muttering.
He had already discussed with the General that the Iron Armor was inevitably the future of warfare, but first, he had to solve its power supply problem.
A suit without a power source was just a clumsy piece of medieval armor, completely at odds with words like 'modern' and 'future'.
But once the energy problem was solved, then…
At this thought, the corners of Tony's mouth curved into a smug smile.
Pepper saw all of this and a smile appeared on her face as well.
She knew Tony had emerged from his funk and was once again that annoying playboy and genius inventor.
Her task was complete; the rest was up to Tony to handle himself.
Pepper firmly believed that the day Tony made his comeback would be the day the Joker's organization was annihilated.
She stood up to leave. "I won't disturb you anymore. I'll go make you some breakfast. What do you want?"
Tony, still thinking, replied casually, "Cheeseburger… a double…"
Pepper rolled her eyes, not understanding why Tony loved cheeseburgers so much when they weren't even that good.
If his affection for any woman was even half of what it was for a cheeseburger, he wouldn't still be unmarried at almost 40.
"Alright! I'll go make it for you. It'll be ready in five minutes."
As Pepper finished speaking and turned back, a tall figure was suddenly standing before her.
A tall and sturdy frame, an expensive, sharp suit, a shiny bald head, and a limited edition Cohiba cigar held in his mouth.
"No need to make breakfast," The man said, holding up a paper bag. "I've already brought the cheeseburgers."
Pepper covered her mouth in surprise, while Tony looked up and exclaimed with delight, "Obie!"
The newcomer was none other than Tony's father's old friend and Stark Industries shareholder—Obadiah Stane!
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You can read advance chapters and view R-18 images of the characters on pat reon page.
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500 power stones.
Top 50. All time.